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Ben says first year under Tomlin proof NFL offensive trends aren't passing them by

i had to change the title of the article a little cause the original was to damn long to fit in the thing lol

Ben Roethlisberger likely would be on a beach somewhere by now with the Steelers' season ended. Instead, he continues to work out at their UPMC facility on the South Side.

That's what happens when you still have to play one more football game.

Roethlisberger continues to prepare for his first Pro Bowl, which will be played Feb. 10 in Honolulu. He has recovered from the arm soreness and sprained ankle that bothered him late in the season.

"I feel great, which is awesome, as good as I've ever felt," Roethlisberger said.

He said he hopes 2007 turns out to be a defining season in his career and that of his offense.

"This year was a solid year for us offensively -- not great, not bad, solid. It was kind of a turning point for us."

Roethlisberger finished second to Tom Brady in the NFL with a 104.1 passer rating and his 32 touchdown passes set a team record after his miserable 2006 marred by various physical ailments. His interceptions dropped from 23 in '06 to 11 last season.

The Steelers, under new coach Mike Tomlin and coordinator Bruce Arians, deployed a more wide-open passing game in 2007 and put more responsibility on Roethlisberger to call protections and to help devise the game plan.

"We're kind of keeping up with the league," Roethlisberger said. "The league is always evolving and offenses are always changing. Right now the offenses around the league -- in terms of who wins -- are pass-dominant offenses. We have started to turn that corner a little bit.

"I'm not saying that we're going to throw the ball 80 times a game, but we have turned that corner in terms of keeping up with the league."

One area of the passing game that did not improve was Roethlisberger's protection. He was sacked 47 times, one more than in 2006 and the second most in team history. The quarterback absolved his offensive line for some of that and blamed himself in part.

"You have to look at it in perspective. You have to look at it as there are times I'm holding the ball too long because I'm trying to make plays. Sometimes when I can throw it away, I'm going to try to prolong a play. Coach Tomlin and I had that talk in that [end of the season] meeting -- you have to live with those sacks sometimes because sometimes I'm going to double pump.

"The sack total to me is skewed. If I threw it away or get it out of my hands right away like I should, then the sack number drops.

"I'm trying to make plays and we live by that sword and we die by it as well. We may lose 10 yards but we might get how many touchdowns by it as well."

The Steelers used the no-huddle more often in 2007, and Roethlisberger sees them doing so more frequently, perhaps even becoming a signature of their offense.

"That's only going to get better. We started doing it more in the second half of the year when we realized we had to. And we realized that's kind of our identity.

"I had that talk with Bruce and Mike a lot, that our identity is kind of going toward this no-huddle -- not super fast, but speed it up a little bit. Throw the ball, mix your runs in because Willie [Parker] is a great sprint-draw guy, a screen guy; hit him real quick and use draws and stuff.

"We realize that's probably the way we're going to go and I don't mind that. I think we have the explosiveness for it and I think we have the personnel for it."

Roethlisberger believes Tomlin, 35, had a good start to his coaching career with the Steelers after replacing Bill Cowher, who resigned after 15 seasons on the job.

"He let his coordinators coordinate, and he got a lot of respect from the guys for that. Nothing against Bill, but it's nice when your coordinator's telling you he's not scared about the ramifications of a coach yelling at him.

"I think he did good. He had to walk a fine line, being a younger guy and trying to be friends but not be friends, trying to be strict but not too strict. He had to walk a fine line his first year. I think it's only going to improve and the relationships he's going to have and the respect guys are going to have will get better. He's going to learn from everything too, just like we do."

No doubt, you can definitely tell these guys on offense love having Tomlin in charge and being able to be more diverse on offense.

Ben is right, this team has the weapons to be a more wide open offense; during the Cowher era you wouldn't have seen us coming back from 14, 17, 18 points down in the 2nd half to either win the game or atleast have a chance to win the game. This team has a nice arsenal of weapons available and this year we have started to see them use them more.

I still think we could have used the no-huddle more than we did, we did a very good job of using it when we had too but we didn't see virtually at all the first half of the season. Mix it in here and there like the Colts do, just to keep defenses honest so that way you always have it ready to go when you actually do need it.

This is not your old smash mouth Steelers anymore, we aren't going to line up and run it down your throat and just mix in the play action pass no matter how many times the media keeps saying that's "who we are" and "what we do". Having said that we do need to be more physical in the running game because there will be times when Ben has an off day or times when teams will focus on stopping the pass or whatever and we have to be diverse and talented enough to beat you with the run or the pass.

Good Article............ IMO the offense made great strides from a new head coach and new O coordinator............ Look forward to this upcoming season and watching Ben grow more and more with the system.

Another key for this new regime on offense is how much is Arians going to improve next year. He's got a year under his belt and for the many good games he did call he made a bunch of blunders that he knows he shouldn't have called. We started out great in the red zone the first half of the year but the 2nd half we were settling for FG's way too many times. Championship teams close the deal in the red zone and don't settle for 3 pts too often.

Another key for this new regime on offense is how much is Arians going to improve next year. He's got a year under his belt and for the many good games he did call he made a bunch of blunders that he knows he shouldn't have called. We started out great in the red zone the first half of the year but the 2nd half we were settling for FG's way too many times. Championship teams close the deal in the red zone and don't settle for 3 pts too often.

agreed. waaaaaaaay too many inconsistencies. arians abandoned everything that was working for us in the first half of the season. i don't think i'll be able to figure that out.